


Hide and Seek

by sherwoodfox



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Animal Traits, Other, Possessiveness, Sexual Content, Sibling Incest, Some Mature Language, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-04 19:47:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15848154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sherwoodfox/pseuds/sherwoodfox
Summary: Greed is certain that Envy is following him, taking on different shapes and faces, though he isn't sure why. As of late, the other homunculus has been invading his thoughts- and he can't help himself, he wants it, just like he wants everything else.





	Hide and Seek

The sun had risen, but only barely, and it wasn't offering much. Heavy grey skies hung over the city, and cold winds whispered between her walls and rustled her tree branches, telling of the coming winter. There was a stillness in the air characteristic of early morning, the only time when trouble makers finally go to bed, and good folk have yet to rise. The truly lost walked the city streets now, the homeless and broken and destitute, the ones that had stayed up all night and had nowhere to go when the sun rose.

The man sitting on the park bench counted crumpled bills that flapped in the icy wind; it chilled his fingers, he knew the cold and could see it in the breath that fell from his lungs- he felt it, burrowing in toward his bones, though he had often wondered why he should. To feel the cold, that was for those of flesh and blood and beating hearts, and he was not made of such things. 

Pursing his lips, like a whistle, the warmth in his lungs came out so white and thick it looked like he smoked an invisible cigar. He shouldn't be sitting there, not in weather like this, but he didn't want to go home. Home- what an empty word, what a trite way of looking at things. _Home is where the heart is,_ that was what humans said, but he didn't have a heart. His ‘heart’ sat buried in the wad of damp money he had stuffed into his pocket, in the jewels people passed in shop windows, in the soft bodies of young girls that men reached for with dirty hands- his name, and nature, was Greed, so he had no heart, and hence no home, and it was with a morning bitterness that he thought these thoughts. In truth, he told himself, he didn't want to go back to the Underground. It would be warmer there, of course, but warmer in the way that a prison was warmer to its inhabitants then the streets were outside...

As he sat there, a prickling sensation in the back of Greed’s neck told him that he was being watched, but when he turned to look the park was still abandoned, and he was still alone. No homeless man or drunkard or lost child stood there to burn him with their eyes. The only signs of life were the fat black crows, sitting in the trees and scavenging the frosted grass, with their filthy citybird talons and glaring beetle-eyes. But the sensation persisted, an awareness of an awareness. Greed didn't care- he was too tired to think about it, too put-down to consider what it might mean, to realize that it might mean anything at all. In the manner of the spiritually exhausted, he was at peace with the cold air and the grey sky, and unaccepting of any disruption of it.

He sat on the park bench for a while longer, and then left, to find an opening cafe or shop or restaurant where he could spend his money and his time, anything to keep himself from going back, for as long as he physically could- the more he was away, the more he could delude himself into believing he was free of it, free of the dank corridors and broken pillars and the dead, and the screaming, and the monsters. What a delightfully addictive drug she was, freedom.

It was only much, much later, that Greed realized one of the crows in the park must not have been a crow at all- after all, there was only one creature he knew that could watch people when they were alone.

~

Greed was drunk, wonderfully drunk, and his spirits were higher than the clouds because he could barely remember who he was, nevermind what he was, and where he should have been going. The alcohol burned as it went down his throat, but only for an instant, and that instant was soon forgotten. That was the pleasure of it- when drunk, the world became nothing more and nothing less than the present. The air flowing in his lungs, the beat of the music in the bar, the feeling of cold, wet stones beneath his hands as he was flung into the street in the rain. Each drop as it struck his cheeks and the back of his neck, that was all there was. He knew he was smiling, his face was locked in a killing grin, and he sang something mindless to himself as he stumbled through the alley, on his way somewhere (he knew not where, for it did not matter, the future was a concept beyond his understanding), his boots shuffling to a dance of no meaning. He didn't make it far- the bags of garbage were soft under the weight of his collapsing body, and he couldn't smell them over the stink of his own breath. He was so dizzy, the world flowed around him in waves, and each drop of autumn rain both kissed and cursed him, for he felt somehow hot and cold all at once.

A stray dog, with drooping eyes and the beginnings of mange in its scruffy coat, approached him and licked his hand, wagging its tail in a sick and needy way. He tried to pat it, but had barely the motor function to do even that. Greed liked dogs. They were loyal animals, trusting animals, they were good and right and he...he liked dogs. Its fur was wet and cold from the rain, so Greed opened his arms and tried to pull the thing into a hug, thinking in a vague and drunk way that he might be able to keep it warm. When it was seated there, he found its weight against his belly made him slightly nauseous, and even as he patted it, it refused to warm up. A flash of inspiration struck him, and he shoved the dog away, hearing it whine high and clear in his ears.

“Oh no, no no no, babydoll,” he said, the words tumbling over his tongue at an angle. “I know who you are.”

When he woke the next morning, there was an axe in each temple from his hangover, and he recalled very little of the night before. He thought that, perhaps, there had been a dog, but he didn't remember now. And he had a funny impression in the back of his head, the thought that maybe the dog hadn't been a dog at all. He didn't go home that night, either.

~

Greed was back in a bar, touching the long blonde locks of a beautiful woman, saying some saccharine nonsense about her eyes, when he looked not to her fine face but to the curves of her body, visible through the fabric of the tight dress she was wearing. He wanted her, and he wanted the costume pearls hanging from her ears, wanted everything she had and more. Anything to fill the void in his chest. Anything to distract him from his lack of purpose, to give the illusion of companionship, to satisfy him, even if only for a few seconds. A few seconds was all he ever got.

The woman giggled and cooed, and blew kisses from cherry red lips, and let Greed buy her drink after drink with stolen or gambled money, throwing the dirty slips of paper at the bartender, loving (in the sick, sour way he loved everything) how his pocket seemed never to empty.

He was on the verge of winning this woman for the night (in the madness of drink, she had flung her thin arms around his neck, and pressed smeary kisses to his jaw) when he became aware of another one sitting close by; a brunette, with locks even more lucious, and breasts even more full, lips glistening even redder. Ah, he wanted her too, he wanted everything! But when he looked at her face for a moment he was shocked, he could have sworn she was his sister, but then he knew otherwise. Not dark enough, or light enough, for that matter- not a sister, and not a brother, either. His stomach burned, and he pushed the blonde aside, leaving her dazed and seated clumsily in his chair as he grabbed the brunette by the wrist and pulled it close to him- and yes, there was a moment of delay as he took its cold skin in hand, a moment before the creature remembered to pretend that it was human and leaned into him, an act to give the illusion that he had been strong enough to yank it to its feet.

“What are you doing, huh?” He growled in its face, and it had the audacity to look afraid of him, syrupy lips parting in a little ‘o’ and tremendous breasts bouncing on its chest. “Do you think I haven't noticed you following me?”

The bartender was yelling, and some rough security types were grabbing Greed by the shoulders to kick him to the curb, but before they could he saw the mask crumble away, saw that delicate expression morph into a hideous snarl. 

He wondered why Envy had waited so long to announce itself, when he was flirting with the woman. Surely, it must have been jealous. That’s all it ever was.

~

Greed was back in the Underground, and he felt like he was suffocating. The entire world walked over his head, and he was buried, where only corpses and burrowing worms belonged. He hated it down here, more passionately and deeply then he had ever hated anything- the dark walls and dusty air of his childhood (if one could call it that) ground in his chest, like he ground his teeth. It made him want to run away, to put on his shell and claw his way out, get sick with drink. If only this place would cease to exist.

Father, withered beyond humanity, sat upon the dias with his arms folded and head bowed, listening to the reports of his more productive children, affairs of the world outside. He was a despicable god, the root of everything wrong in the world, a disease made in Xerxes and intent on destroying Amestris. Greed didn't know what he would say when it was his turn to speak- nothing, or the truth? After all, he could never bring himself to lie.

Envy was talking now, and it was dressed like a general, some fat old man with a long grey beard and not a hair upon his head. It never looked at him, not even once, but he knew it was playing with him. Little bitch. He wondered why Father had given it the task of watching him- but for some reason, it made no report of his movements.

When it was finished Father congratulated it on its work, and Greed could have sworn the thing purred, being the suck-up that it was. He hated it sometimes, just like how he hated that he _didn't_ hate it other times. The whole affair was tiresome.

“And Envy,” said Father in his wandering voice, somehow both thoughtful and thoughtless- “keep using human forms when you come here. It's what you were designed for- and the look you keep giving yourself, it's really quite disgusting. No one needs to see that.”

Greed watched as Envy floundered for a second on the steps, jaw opening and closing, and then it agreed, and bowed away. For the rest of the meeting, Greed was deeply and inexplicably enraged.

~

When Greed saw Envy next it was pretending to be a waitress at some dirty, greasy spoon, and he had tragically gotten through ordering to the first course (and through the first two beers) before he realized. It made him wonder how often his little sibling was hanging around- if there were times when he never noticed it at all.

“So, why am I being watched?” he said the next time it came over, and felt strangely happy when he saw the chipper and innocent expression of the waitress fall away, replaced by a bitter scowl as Envy realized it had been caught. “Not living up to Father’s expectations, am I? Need a babysitter, now?” he teased.

Envy turned its head in an eerie, reptilian way, and then shrugged, tossing his plate of food onto the table with a lazy flick of one too-strong arm. 

“It's not about Father.” it said, and then it left the restaurant entirely, striding out the door before he could stop it.

He found himself missing it a little when it was gone.

~

Greed was sleeping one night in a cheap hotel, boozed up and miserable with some sick combination of restlessness and need, but need for what he did not know. A need for everything, everything all at once, he supposed, because that's what it always was. He found himself waking from fever dreams to the sound of metal striking the floor- the vent on the other side of the room. Before he could even open his mouth he was being attacked; a huge serpent, thrice the size of a man and nearly as fat coiled and writhed in his bed, trying to work its way with uncharacteristic rage around his body and biting through his skin with sharp fangs. After the third of these bites his shield was fully extended, and he tore through the scales and cold flesh with claws of his own, barely awake and crazy from the shock of it all. Snakes didn't usually emote well, but he caught sight of one tremendous yellow eye on this one, and it burned with a terrible hatred. He didn't understand.

“The _fuck,_ Envy,” he yelled, and as he spoke its name the muscles of the snake wound even tighter around his chest. Though he tore at it, ripped it open to the bone, it didn't seem to care, burning stone like coal on a transport train in a flurry of red sparks. “If you're going to kill me, at least put your own face on!”

For a half-second the snake paused, its teeth sliding over the shield on his arm, and then it was changing on top of him, the serpent twisting away into nothing. Long green hair fell over Greed’s face and he felt human limbs settle on either side of his chest, heavier than any woman that had sat on him like that before. It stopped trying to bite, and so he relaxed (not enough, of course, to put the shield down), black claws coming to rest on its hips instead of digging in. 

“There you are, cutie,” he said, shaky, his tone just patronizing enough that he was sure Envy would try to hurt him again, but it didn't. In the moment of heavy silence that followed he reached up to brush some of its hair from its face, and saw only then that the violence from earlier had been replaced by something else- something he hadn't seen before in those features. Something almost like misery- a deeper misery, not its usual sulk.

“What's the matter, huh? What are you doing?” he said, slipping out of the baby-talk tone a little. His hands- greedy hands- impulsively found themselves caressing Envy’s thighs, drawn to the white skin shining in the moonlight. They were very firm, not soft or squishy like most of the women he went for, and yet he liked the feeling anyway. With one sharp finger he traced the red serpent that sat there, devouring its own flesh. Throughout this Envy was uncharacteristically complacent, its eyes drifting up over his head to the moonlight outside. There was something surprisingly human in its face, for the one that was the least human of them all. The sight made his stone do a funny little hop in his chest- he wanted more.

Unable to help himself Greed squeezed its ass and that broke the spell, the melancholy look turning back to the expected spite and monstrousness. Envy thumped his chest with one fist (and oof, even with the shield that one hurt- though his little sibling had no way of piercing his shell, it certainly had an advantage regarding strength) and growled at him.

“I _hate_ you, Greed,” it spat, baring white fangs, straighter and less prominent than his own. But that wild rage from before was gone- this was how it usually was, an expected level of antagonism. “Go to hell,” it added.

Greed wanted to laugh as it clambered from his bed (never very graceful, this one, how could it be- over five tons of reptile were packed into that small body) and stormed off, leaving through the door instead of the vent, so its footsteps made the floor shake. When even those sounds had faded, Greed was left by himself to wonder- where had that initial anger, that terrible violence come from? He had never seen Envy so blood crazed. Why had it come to see him in the first place?

~

For several nights after that, Greed got drunk and stole and gambled and tried to get laid, but it was never very satisfying. No matter how many beautiful women there were for him, with their diamonds and pearls and silky flowing hair, he could only think about those strong, cold thighs straddling him, and burning violet eyes. He wondered when, exactly, he had stopped thinking that Envy was disgusting, stopped hating it for the repulsive monster that it was- and started to find it somehow lovely, instead.

~

Greed was tipsy, strutting through the military base in Central, drawing many eyes and whispers. He had ID of course, for entering, but he looked and smelled like a vagabond, and sang hymns of the bottle to himself as he went. He knew he would get in a lot of trouble for this, with Father, there was no reason for him to make a show- but he couldn't help himself. In being here he was denying his dear dad and his rules, and even the thought of it was intoxicating.

He recognized Envy dressed as a young officer because of the look it gave him- a particular furrowing of the brows and downwards quirk of the lips that he could spot on any face now. How delightful, to have found it on his own, instead of discovering it only when it followed him. He was the seeker.

Greed grabbed it by the hand and pulled it into a storage closet, surprised that it let him do so. When inside he cupped its face in his hands- so cold, always, and dry, like snakeskin- loving the fact that the man it was wearing now was shorter than he was.

“This is a good look,” he told it, slurring a little. “But I like the real you. Can you- yeah, but leave the uniform, please.”

Envy raised one fine eyebrow at the request, but there was a fragment of a smile on the corner of its lips. When the transformation was complete it freed spikes of green hair from under the collar of its uniform in one fluid motion, and Greed almost giggled in a drunken way at the absurdity of the gesture- the uniform, after all, was only more of Envy’s body- clothes were just something else to fabricate- ah, it was naked, it was naked all the time. Perhaps he was more drunk that he had thought, if that idea was appealing to him.

“Yeah, cute military babe,” he said vaguely, and Envy scoffed. It was standing so close to him, but he wanted to press in closer, and touch. It looked like it might smack him, or bite him again. He wouldn't mind.

“Fuck you, Greed,” it said in a grinding voice, but strangely it didn't stop him as he wrapped his arms around its torso in an embrace, and stood still when he stooped to kiss it on the mouth. 

“If you want,” Greed mumbled into the soft skin of its cheek, inhaling the dark and slightly decaying smell of its hair- a smell very much like the air of the Underground, but a little sharper, and bizarrely now he found that scent attractive, though he had hated to breathe it in so much before. “I think about you a lot, you know. Why did you want to kill me?”

He wasn't entirely sure of what he was saying or doing, finding himself kissing little lines along its cheek and jawbone, but he heard its voice with surprising clarity in his ear.

“I can't stand you,” it hissed, its breath little puffs against his skin that reminded him of the winter wind. “I can't stand _seeing_ you…”

“What's wrong with me?” he said, and despite himself he found his fingers undoing the buttons on its uniform, wanting to find the skin beneath skin, wanting all of it and then more. Envy’s breath hitched, and the sound delighted him.

“You belong to _everything else,_ ” it said, and he leaned in to kiss it again, more passionately, and this time it kissed him back, the uniform dissolving into nothing under his hands. The shock of touching smooth skin so suddenly gave him pause, and then he was grasping for it everywhere he could reach, fumbling for purchase on a body that felt much like the snake had in his bed the other night. By strong hands his own clothes were soon torn away to match, and he was laughing in spite of it all, he adored how different it was from everyone else, how arrogant it seemed pulling him down to the floor, letting him part its legs and breathe in the scent where its shoulder met its neck. Red lightning crackled again as it opened its body to accept him, something that was not entirely feminine and not entirely human forming between its legs, just as sharpened nails pierced the skin along his back. He shivered- would he let anyone else do _that_ to him? He didn't know. Entering was incredibly easy, it was so slick down there, he was fully sheathed in the space of one breath and found the next one choked on the feeling.

“That's great, baby,” he groaned, which was an obnoxious sound, and this was just as good as being blackout drunk, if not better- all he felt was the present, the world around him was hyperclear, narrowing down to this point in the now and no more. For him, the universe consisted of nothing but those cold thighs wrapped around his waist, the pain and relief of having the skin on his back torn open and healed, the way Envy bit its lower lip instead of moaning. It's insides were cold around his cock, which was not a surprise, but what was surprising was how good it felt despite that- or perhaps, because of it. 

“You look gorgeous like this,” he found himself saying, and it was the truth- Envy was brutishly lovely, all those tight muscles moving under flawless white skin, its hair spread out on the floor like the tentacles of some underwater monster. Greed realized he was very lucky they were doing this on the floor, the floor of a reinforced building no less- a bed would have probably broken by now, just from the weight of Envy lying on it, and writhing the way it did with such delightful abandon. In one particularly well-aimed thrust he made it shudder from head to toe, and that broke the dam, then it was letting out moans and laughter and weird noises that were something in between, arching its back to expose the make-pretend bones in its chest.

“We’re gonna get in _trouble,”_ it crowed, eyes glittering with unkind mirth, and he kissed it, his fangs clacking clumsily against its jaw as proof of his haste. God, he wanted this thing so badly, he wanted it to be his forever in every possible way, along with all there was in the world. It must have made itself inhumanly tight on purpose, no human man or woman felt anything like this- he was sure it had only been a few minutes, and yet already the fire in his belly was heating up, approaching the end.

But Envy got there first, spasming around him as it came, one white fist slamming into the floor at its side hard enough to crack the plaster, eyes glittering like jewels. Starved, it must have been, he didn't think anyone else had made it feel this way in a long time- if ever. Everyone else was missing out, he thought as he offered a few more sharp thrusts, and it was seeing the way those cold limbs trembled thanks to him that did it, a sight more pleasurable than the pleasure itself. He came _hard-_ it was the first time in a long time that he had seen white during an orgasm, or been able to sink his teeth into his partner’s throat without fear of killing them. All other such occasions- for there had been many- seemed feeble and drowned in comparison. Perhaps he had been starved, too.

In the aftermath they were both weak, and Envy let Greed touch it a little, hands wandering over every available patch of skin, refusing yet to pull out. Its eyes were glassy and its breathing strong- even though it wasn't his sin, he couldn't help but feel a little proud of himself.

“Liked that, did you?” he purred, squeezing its thighs possessively, and it rolled its eyes, recovering enough to shove him out and off. It stood awkwardly, and he loved looking at its body move, loved how it shook its head to adjust its hair. 

“Have fun getting out of here,” it said, giving him one last sharp look over its shoulder, and then it was changing- now again, it was the young blonde officer, fully dressed and not a hair out of place. Like it hadn't just gotten fucked. He didn't understand what it meant until it opened the storage room door and left, closing him in with the tattered and unwearable remains of his clothing, naked and sticky with sweat (and other things). That's right, he was in the military headquarters. Great. 

Despite the incoming humiliation, his mind felt clearer then it had in a while- sober, but without the pain. He felt good- and he thought it was maybe more than just the sex hormones making him feel that way.

~

For the next week Greed spent the majority of his time hoping to find Envy again, and he was so intent on spotting it that he found himself getting a little less drunk, a little less aimless. Anything to keep him sharp- perhaps, if he hadn't been so close to pissed in that closet, he would have been able to last a little longer. He wanted to make it really lose its mind, next time.

But he never found it. Either it had been hiding especially well, to tease him, or it hadn't been around at all. He didn't understand- didn't it want him? He wanted it desperately. What had it said, just before? Perhaps it couldn't bear to be around him, so jealous it was, knowing he would always desire other things as well. No matter. He would show it, as soon as he found it again, that it was his.

~

Envy was dressed for reconnaissance when Greed saw it next, and he was lucky to have spotted it at all, his only hint the sideways glance it had given him- dressed as an ordinary middle-aged woman, it hadn't intended this time on getting caught. But Greed didn't care one bit, he grabbed it off the street with mugger’s expertise and led it into an alley (even now it was obliging- if it really didn't want to come, it need only stand still, and let Greed try and figure out how to move it). He felt it change shape in his arms as the sounds of the bustling street beyond fell away, and immediately embraced it, cupping its cheek in one hand and waist in the other- so desperate he was, was this how their sister felt constantly? It must be both a blessing and a curse.

Envy was reluctant he could tell, but the stiffness fell away as he kissed it, an invasive and hungry kiss, pushing his own moans of desire into its mouth. Only when it started really kissing back did he pull away, licking and biting down its neck, liking how it squirmed and stamped in the frustration of the moment.

“Were you avoiding me? Huh?” he growled into its skin, and it bared its teeth at him, sharp and white and lizardlike. “No more of that, babydoll, you're mine now, I'm gonna make you feel so good…”

He didn't know or care what he was saying, he just wanted to see Envy react, but suddenly it wasn't looking at him anymore. Its eyes were drawn straight, over his shoulder, and its expression was flat- neither a smile nor a scowl, a liar’s face, revealing no emotion. 

“What?” he said dumbly, and turned. The opposite wall of the alley was alive and writhing with bulging purple eyes and gnashing teeth, with shadows darker than black that stretched up and over the wall itself. Greed could feel a swear word on his lips but didn't speak it, entirely unsure of what to do.

 _We need to have a talk, Greed,_ said Pride.

~

Greed was locked in the Underground, a punishment for his poor behaviour. No results in so much time above earth, never following orders, never reporting back as required. Lacklustre efforts, almost as if he didn't care about the cause, that was what they said. Well, he _didn't_ care, not one bit, and was suffering beyond belief for it now. Under the streets of Central he no longer felt like a man, but instead like some storybook monster, crouched in between rumour and reality. He had ambitions of his own, damn it, he had places he wanted to go and things he wanted to do, things he could never achieve under Father’s ridiculous regime. Even if it was only to a few, Greed couldn't stand to bow. He wanted to be mastered by no one but himself- freedom was what he longed for most, of all the desires that made up his being, save companionship. But both were impossible for him as he was now.

And he was dried out, aches and pains of withdrawal (not just from the booze, but from life, as well) hitting him as they would any other man, no matter how hard his core worked to fix it. He had no energy to do anything but throw himself into a sulk, finding each passing second below the earth more unbearable than the last.

Heavy footsteps outside his door alerted him to the approach of a desirable presence, and for a second he let himself indulge in the impossible fantasy of Envy comforting him like a merchant’s wife, cold cloth in hand and body pressed close. Thank God it was coming, at last, after- how long had it been now, down here? He had already lost track. It wasn't even sex he wanted at this point, he just wanted to talk to it, it was the only thing that made him feel like a person in this place.

When it opened the door, Greed almost moaned at just the sight, and in a better state of mind perhaps he would have been concerned at the strength of his...affection. Its eyes were gleaming with cruel mirth, and it looked exquisite, something between grotesque and beautiful, enchanting beyond belief.

“Washed up, are you?" it said, and laughed at him, and even though it was being mean Greed found himself loving it a little bit. This time, it had come to him openly, with no games or tricks or masks. No hide and seek.

He was going to reply- tease it, anything to keep the conversation going- when the shadows darkened around Envy’s feet, expanding further than its figure allowed in the light, and he saw clearly how its smile slipped off its face like water. He was sure his expression was the same.

 _I think you have somewhere to be, Envy,_ said Pride, writhing up its legs, dark and insubstantial hands wrapping around those firm white thighs, slipping towards the hem of its skirt, suggesting very openly that whatever was under there would be easily in reach. Greed felt himself sit upright, his mouth opening, but any words he could have summoned caught in his chest as another whip of shadow flicked across Envy’s lips.

There was something dreadful growing in Greed’s chest- some distorted, grinding emotion, something he couldn't quite identify. A mixture of possessiveness and fear and hatred and self-loathing all at once. It _hurt,_ God, the sight of Envy- _his_ Envy- in Pride’s arms was suddenly driving him crazy in a way nothing ever had before, no amount of arousal or avarice or arrogance had ever been this intense, or been this violent, or this miserable. He hadn't realized it was possible for someone to possess an emotion that was darker and more twisted, more horrible than things like anger and sadness combined...

...with a start, Greed realized suddenly that what he was feeling must be _jealousy._

He would have been amazed if he didn't feel so sick. Greed knew what jealousy was, he understood the concept and its application just as he understood any other word, but he had never _experienced_ it before. How could he? His existence was all about the ‘more’, not about what he already possessed. The shock of the feeling was worse than a punch in the gut.

Oh, poor Envy, pitiable little Envy, how terrible it must be- living life as a creature consumed with this emotion, in the strongest form it could take, just as he was consumed with his desires. It must be suffering constantly.

Greed found his eyes wet as he tuned back in, becoming aware again of the full world before them, and not just the sight of those black fingers creeping over white skin.

“I was just talking,” Envy was saying spitefully to Pride, but still it turned to go, meeting his eyes only one more time. “I didn't realize he was _quarantined.”_

The shadows slipped away as it walked, a demonstration more than a true desire, and it was the only relief Greed got. When they were both gone he stewed even more furiously then before, his brain flip flopping in his skull. He felt insane, he was going to do something insane, he was sure (no wonder Envy acted so crazy, if it felt like _that_ all the time). He realized that he had reached a deciding point in his life- a climactic moment. Something had to change. He couldn't keep going like he had, drinking and drifting to avoid his problems, and his responsibilities. He couldn't do it, any of it, anymore. But the thought of reforming- of becoming a good son, and obeying, and completing his tasks with the loyalty of a pedigree- filled him with a deep and murky dread. He might as well kill himself, were he to do that. He was worried he might kill himself somehow anyway, with his own brash decisions, trapped here in the dark for God knows how long...

It was in the lonely hours of his imprisonment that Greed made up his mind- he was going to leave for good. And Pride...Pride was never going to touch Envy again.

~

When Father spoke to him at the end of his imprisonment, Greed sat in silence, his arms crossed and his expression sulky. He couldn't answer those questions, respond to those demands. ‘You'll be good from now on, won't you, Greed? We don't need to do this again, do we, Greed? You'll be a good son for me, right, Greed?’

If he spoke the truth he would get locked up again, and he could never lie, so he said nothing instead. He despised Pride, who flickered in the air behind Father, like the teacher’s pet he was. He wanted desperately to see Envy again- it hadn't tried to visit him, and so he expected it was making a play similar to his, pretending to be good so it had the opportunity to be bad. That's what he hoped, anyway- the thought of Envy not wanting him was unbearable.

In the end, they let him go, Father deciding that his silence was just an example of acceptable juvenile behaviour. He was given a strict warning, of course- if he were ever to misbehave again, he would be given a much harsher punishment.

Not that they would be able to catch him in order to inflict it.

~

Over the next few months, Greed was good. It was a dull torture, running errands and patrolling the Underground, but he did it anyway. Slowly he built up his reputation, and Father stopped questioning him, and Pride stopped hovering in his shadows. Exactly like he wanted. Perhaps his self-induced image of drunken stupidity helped him, for no one suspected any deception on his part- why would they? He was a brute, made for battle. Lust and Envy were the liars.

He didn't get to see Envy much. He suspected it had been told to avoid him, and so it did, but in family meetings he often felt its eyes, and from the corners of his own he would let himself indulge in little flashes of green and white. At night it was all he could think about.

And as suspicion lifted from the both of them, he heard its footsteps more often, felt that prickling heat even when he was alone. He always knew now, when it was there, he had mastered the game. He never said anything, never tried to approach it, but he did occasionally leave little notes where only it would find them- nameless love notes, usually, and occasionally little snippets of his plan, worded vaguely in case they fell into the wrong hands. He wanted so desperately for it to come with him, so desperately he felt pathetic. Envy was special to him now- ever since he had felt what it felt, it had taken up residence in his mind. Even if he were to lose everything else, he couldn't stand to part with it.

He thought it understood.

~

With freedom at hand, Greed found himself wandering the same park he had visited all those nights ago, when the first frosts had been setting. Spring seemed on its way now, with warmer winds and possibly some flowers, not that any would last in Central. But he wasn't going to be in Central. This park was on his way to the train station, and there was one leaving for the south within the hour- by the time Father and the rest realized he was shirking his duties, he would be miles away. There were two tickets already sitting in his pocket.

On a bench in the park there sat a little old man, his hands folded demurely across a cane and his body hidden inside a light spring jacket. He was watching the crows pick and strut amongst the young grass, and he didn't look at Greed even once, the perfect image of human normalcy. 

“Hey,” he said to the old man, who turned his head slowly to face the tall figure of the homunculus, squinting through milky eyes of age. Greed smiled, all teeth, unable to help himself, unable to resist the urge to tease. “You shouldn't be here, you know. I don't think they want us talking.”

The old man shrugged, and Greed noticed that though there was a little leftover winter chill, the air from his nose didn't cloud before his face- because it wasn't warm enough to do so. Perfect score.

“I'm leaving, Envy. I'm leaving and I'm not coming back.”

The old man frowned, like he didn't understand, and Greed rolled his eyes. All of his messages in the Underground had been found and destroyed, and he knew he wasn't dealing with a complete idiot.

“Come with me already, why don't you? And get dressed.”

There was a pause where the wind seemed to blow all the way through Greed’s core, and then old man stood slowly, leaning heavy on his cane. 

“You’re being awfully presumptuous,” he said in a weak and ancient voice, and only then did it change, folding the image back into itself and up, letting its hair fall gracefully about its shoulders. He hugged it almost immediately, admiring how at its height it fit perfectly under his chin, soft green spines brushing against his skin. At the crackle of the transmutation, all the crows had flown off, and it was only the two of them in the park, now.

“No more hiding,” he said, impulsive. “We’re gonna be free, baby.”

**Author's Note:**

> Shameless Plug: If you enjoyed this, check out ‘(No More) Playing Games’, which is a pseudo-sequel to this story with the same concept and pairing. I didn’t want to turn it into a proper series, but hey.


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